I understand not approving of steeling.
However all the DRM crap, the broadcast flag and so forth doesn't really keep people from stealing, esp music. It primarily makes things more difficult for users who want to stick to music that they have a legal right to. It also prevents a broad open market in music and other content, and makes computers and consumer devices to use the content slower, less interoperable, and less convenient and less in control of the owners of the machine.
I'd buy music files if I didn't have to have the DRM in order to play them, but the DRM comes with the programs so I don't buy the files. Now they are putting DRM in to CDs (including a root kit that hides itself and makes your PC less secure). If I can't get the CDs without DRM than I won't buy the CDs either. If your CD's have DRM than you might not be able to re-rip them. And if you bypass the DRM (even by some methods so trivial that you might not realize that you bypassed it) the record companies would claim that you have acted illegally, just as a TV or movie exec tried to argue the idea that people who fast forwarded through commercials on their Tivo where stealing. These are the type of attitudes held by people who want to control how songs, movies, TV, ect. are distributed and used, and more importantly want the government to help them achieve this control. And they don't just want to pass laws pushing their control, but also they want to pass laws that basically give them approval on new devices or programs that play media content, new operating systems and hardware for computers and so forth. Some of the schemes would allow them to make changes to your devices (including PCs) without your consent or knowledge.
A separate issue from the copyrights and DRM and such is the pricing. I think music on CDs or on legal downloads is strongly overpriced. I do think record companies have the right to charge what they want, but in the long run I would like to see the market be more open to competition. I'm not suggesting the government go in and break up the record companies or otherwise use heavy-handed tactics against them, but I'd like to see the way the market operates change. I think in the long run it will. I don't think the government should give them extra protections to try and prevent this from happening. I've read reasonable arguments that the DRM for music is less to stop illegal copying (people can get unprotected copies two easily, even if not legally, for DRM to be effective) but rather to try and reduce competition.
Tim |
